Search Google Appliance

Health & Medicine

The Museum's collections of medical science artifacts represent nearly all aspects of health and medical practice. Highlights include early X-ray apparatuses, such as one of Wilhelm Roentgen's tubes, penicillin mold from Alexander Fleming’s experiments, and Jonas Salk's original polio vaccine. More recent acquisitions include the first artificial heart implanted in a human, the earliest genetically engineered drugs, and materials related to David, the "Bubble Boy." Other artifacts range from artificial limbs and implant devices to bloodletting and dental instruments, beauty products, and veterinary equipment. The contents of a medieval apothecary shop and an 1890s drugstore form part of the collections, along with patent and alternative medicines. The collections also document the many differing perspectives on health and medical issues, from patients, family members, doctors, nurses, medical students, and out-of-the-mainstream health practitioners.

Pin-back buttons serve many purposes. They are efficient advertising vehicles, handy for fund-raising in support of a cause, concise statements of a person’s beliefs, a form of educational outreach, and convenient ice-breakers for conversation. NMAH has several hundred pin-back buttons related to disability, including this one from Illinois.

Pin-back buttons serve many purposes. They are efficient advertising vehicles, handy for fund-raising in support of a cause, concise statements of a person’s beliefs, a form of educational outreach, and convenient ice-breakers for conversation. NMAH has several hundred pin-back buttons related to disability, including this one.

Dewitt’s Pine Tar Shampoo was produced by E. C. DeWitt and Company of Chicago, Ill. The company marketed a variety of patent medicines beginning in the late 19th century, including Kodol pills for dyspepsia, One Minute Cough Cure, and Cascasweet for infants and children. The C. B. Fleet Company acquired E. C. DeWitt in 1990.

While the exact date of this shampoo is not known, the trademark of a sun with rays rising over mountains was first used by the company in 1906 and officially trademarked in 1908. Pine tar was commonly employed to treat skin irritation and to restore health to itchy and inflamed skin, while relieving discomfort.

Danderine Scalp Tonic was first marketed around 1895 by the Knowlton Danderine Company of Chicago, Ill. The trademark was registered in 1908, after the company became part of the Neuralgyline Company (soon to become Sterling Products) of Wheeling, W.Va. In the early 1900s, the company used celebrity endorsements including those of Miss Jessie Bartlett Davis, a famous opera singer, and many members of the House of Representatives.

Advertisements usually featured women with floor-length, wavy hair, often accompanied by personal testimony. Elias W. Knowlton’s young daughter, Frances Marie, also appeared in advertising and on the box. During this period, the Danderine slogan was "Grows Hair and We can Prove it!" Danderine was still being sold as late as 1945 and was later followed by Double Danderine, which claimed to kill the dandruff germ on contact. Double Danderine was sold from 1946 through 1963. The Danderine trademark was last owned by Medtech Laboratories of Cody, Wyo.

In the 1920s, Danderine was marketed as a "Beauty-Tonic," "To Beautify your Hair" and make it "twice as heavy and plentiful." This box dates to that period.

Van Ess Laboratories of Chicago, Ill., introduced Cleero Shampoo in 1924, although their advertising claimed it had been in use privately and in Europe for 20 years. Cleero was a no-rinse shampoo. The company promoted the idea that soap and water were bad for the hair. Cleero did not produce the usual alkaline (soapy) lather, but "snow-white foam" instead. When the shampoo was done working, it would turn grey and the user could simply towel it off. The process was repeated until the foam no longer turned grey.

Suspecting dishonesty in advertising, the American Medical Association analyzed the Cleero formula in 1924. They found it to be ordinary cocoanut [coconut] oil based soap.

The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:

For use as an antiperiodic, bitter tonic, ecbolic [labor promoter], antiseptic, antipyretic. Used locally on wounds. [Squibb's Materia Medica: A Handbook for the Physician and the Pharmacist, 1906 Edition]

The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer are:

For use as a readily assimilable form of nurishment. Aids with anemia, convalescence from acute diseases, debility, diabetes, dysepsia, gastro-intestinal disorders, cholera infantum, lactation, mal-nutrition and marasmus, nervous exhaustian, old age and conditions of low vitality, rickets, typhoid and other fevers, and as a food tonic in wasting diseases.

The popularity of “the Pill” created a new market for pharmaceutical companies. For the first time, healthy women would be taking medication for an extended period of time. Pill manufacturers developed unique packaging in order to distinguish their product from those of their competitors and build brand loyalty. Packaging design often incorporated a “memory aid” to assist women in tracking their daily pill regimen, as well as styled cases to allow pills to be discreetly carried in bags and purses. The National Museum of American History’s Division of Medicine and Science’s collection of oral contraceptives illustrates some of the changes that the packaging and marketing of the Pill underwent from its inception in 1960 to the present.

Abbott Laboratories of Chicago, Illinois, produced this Ogen .625 brand estrogen hormonal treatment around 1977. The yellow, blue, and orange packaging has a cutout to reveal a sample pill. The 21 pills are contained in a trapezoidal blister pack inside a yellow trapezoidal blister pack holder. The holder has the days of the week embossed around the perimeter. These pills contain .625 mg of sodium estrone sulfate.

The popularity of “the Pill” created a new market for pharmaceutical companies. For the first time, healthy women would be taking medication for an extended period of time. Pill manufacturers developed unique packaging in order to distinguish their product from those of their competitors and build brand loyalty. Packaging design often incorporated a “memory aid” to assist women in tracking their daily pill regimen, as well as styled cases to allow pills to be discreetly carried in bags and purses. The National Museum of American History’s Division of Medicine and Science’s collection of oral contraceptives illustrates some of the changes that the packaging and marketing of the Pill underwent from its inception in 1960 to the present.

Abbott Laboratories of Chicago, Illinois, produced this Ogen 1.25 brand estrogen hormonal treatment around 1977. The yellow, blue, and orange packaging has a cutout to reveal a sample pill. The 21 pills are contained in a trapezoidal blister pack inside an orange trapezoidal blister pack holder. The holder has the days of the week embossed around the perimeter. These pills contain 1.25 mg of sodium estrone sulfate.

The popularity of “the Pill” created a new market for pharmaceutical companies. For the first time, healthy women would be taking medication for an extended period of time. Pill manufacturers developed unique packaging in order to distinguish their product from those of their competitors and build brand loyalty. Packaging design often incorporated a “memory aid” to assist women in tracking their daily pill regimen, as well as styled cases to allow pills to be discreetly carried in bags and purses. The National Museum of American History’s Division of Medicine and Science’s collection of oral contraceptives illustrates some of the changes that the packaging and marketing of the Pill underwent from its inception in 1960 to the present.

Abbott Laboratories of Chicago, Illinois, produced this Ogen 2.5 brand estrogen hormonal treatment around 1977. The yellow, blue, and orange packaging has a cutout to reveal a sample pill. The 21 pills are in a trapezoidal blister pack inside a blue trapezoidal blister pack holder. The holder has the days of the week embossed around the perimeter. These pills contain 2.5 mg of sodium estrone sulfate.